Free Astronomy Magazine January-February 2018

49 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2018 STRANGE IMAGES Above we have a marmot watching over its territory, while at the side we see a carapace, what remains of a dead martian tortoise. In the two photographs below you can instead distinguish a toad and, on the right, a little — less defined — penguin. All these curious similarities are fun, but unfortunately, on the web, there are those who used them (and they are not few) to prove the exis- tence of life on Mars. To be- lieve and to affirm that these unusual rocky conformations are living or fossil animals only proves the ignorance of those who believe or affirm it. If such evolved forms of life exist or existed on Mars, we would have evidence of an entire biosphere, not just some isolated specimens. In addition, for billions of years, Mars has been deprived of an atmosphere thick enough to support highly evolved forms of life. Finally, why the alleged martian animals should be identical in shape and evolutionary stage to today's terrestrial animals?